Jayne Tyrrell

Jayne Tyrrell, until recently, was the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Interest on Lawyers Trust Account Program (IOLTA), a position she held for over 30 years. The program provides funds for legal services to the poor and for improving the administration of justice.

Over the years Jayne has taken leadership roles in many national and state settings, including membership in ABA committees on pro bono and IOLTA, chair of the National Association of IOLTA Programs (NAIP) and coordinator of the defense team in the constitutional attack on IOLTA’s constitutionality. On the state level, she has been member or chair of the MBA’s Section Councils on Access to Justice and the BBA’s Delivery of Legal Services Committees.

Jayne’s lifelong interest in the plight of low-income people without counsel has been evidenced by her early involvement in the groundbreaking legal needs study “Action Plan for Legal Services,” serving as Executive Director of the San Francisco Bar Association’s Volunteer Legal Services Program, working on the BBA’s 1998 study on pro se litigants, developing an information booth for the Brooke Courthouse, and actively participating in the SJC’s Special Committee on Self-Represented Litigants.

In recent years Jayne has worked on expanding the right to counsel in civil cases. She co-chaired the Boston Bar Association Task Force on Expanding the Right to Counsel, which issued “Gideon’s New Trumpet: Expanding the Civil Right to Counsel in Massachusetts,” and conducted four pilot studies. She is on the steering committee of the National Coalition on Civil Right to Counsel and is one of the leaders seeking to establish a right to counsel in housing cases in Massachusetts.

In addition to her work in civil legal aid, Jayne brought together leading women lawyers to create the Women’s Bar Association Women Leadership Initiative, which has encouraged and supported emerging women leaders in the bar. She also serves on the BBA’s Law School Graduate Mentoring Program.

As an Access to Justice Fellow, Jayne will partner with the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, which provides statewide advocacy and leadership in advancing laws, policies, and practices that secure economic, racial, and social justice for low-income people and communities.